Lakewood City Council selects Ron Piazza to fill vacant seat

LAKEWOOD — A well-known McDonald's franchise operator will be the newest member of the Lakewood City Council.

The council unanimously selected Ron Piazza, a partner and franchise operator of Piazza McDonald's in Lakewood, Thursday night during a special meeting to fill the vacancy left by the death of longtime Councilman Larry Van Nostran.

Piazza will complete the remainder of Van Nostran's term, which ends March 24, 2015. He will be sworn in before Jan. 8 by the city clerk, and there will be a public swearing-in at the next regular council meeting Jan. 22, according to city spokesman Bill Grady.

A longtime Lakewood resident, Piazza was selected for his community involvement and business experience, said Vice Mayor Steve Croft and Councilman Jeff Wood, who made up a two-person committee that reviewed the applications of 20 residents who had applied to fill the vacancy. The committee narrowed the list to five finalists, whose names were released Wednesday.

Piazza's experience includes being a longtime leader in the McDonald's Operators Association of Southern California, which oversees advertising and public relations for all 680 McDonald's restaurants in the region.

He also chaired the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California for six years and spearheaded fundraising for the successful effort to build the Long Beach Ronald McDonald House.

Piazza also is an active resident and civic leader with several Lakewood community events, including the Youth Sports Hall of Fame, Concerts in the Park and Pan American Fiesta.

By state law, the council had to either appoint a Lakewood resident to the council vacancy by Jan. 8 or schedule a special June 4 election. The council chose to fill the seat to avoid the cost of a special election, which the city clerk estimates would cost Lakewood between $80,000 and $100,000.

The four other finalists were:

William Baca, a sales and logistics supervisor with Holiday Paper Products who has served as a community safety commissioner in Lakewood for the past seven years;

Vicky Stuckey, an employee of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who served on the Lakewood Community Safety Commission from 2001 to 2005 and on the Planning and Environment Commission since 2005;

Marc Titel, a college instructor at Fremont College who served on the council from 1984 to 2001 and also served as a member of the city's Planning and Environment Commission and Cable TV Commission;

Ron Wade, the owner of a home improvement company who has served on the city's Planning and Environment Commission for the past 26 years and served on the Community Safety Commission for four years.

Van Nostran, a nine-time Lakewood mayor, died at his home Nov. 9 at the age of 79. First elected to the council in 1975, he was the longest-serving council member in Lakewood's history at 37 years.